...............for another year and, I think, a great time was had by all. The crowds turned out, the weather eventually came good and the masqueraders had a ball. What more can you ask?
Carnival is an organic thing. It changes from year to year. This pleases some people and upsets others, a bit like real life really. The route is no longer circular but has a defined start and finish. It now travels clockwise instead of anticlockwise (I still can't get used to this!) and there are now definite start and finish times. The days when bands were still circulating and the sound systems were still grinding it out at midnight are now long gone.Whether any of this is a good thing depends on your point of view but it seems to me that there is a danger of it becoming too sanitised.
Plans to move the whole thing into a park have been, and should continue to be, resisted. It is what it is and what it is, is a street festival (that's a lot of it's and is's, but you know what I mean!). Taking it out of it's natural home would kill it.
Yes, it causes massive disruption. Yes, the streets are filled almost beyond their bursting point. Yes, it is seriously inconvenient for some residents.............but Yes, it is a fantastic event and long may it continue.
For more photographs, go to my Flickr Photostream and click on the Notting Hill Carnival 2010 set in the top right hand corner.................and while you're there why not have a look at some of my other pics. You never know, you may see something else you like!
For more videos of the Visual Sound of Carnival go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScNTyZPP0M4
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